“I’d like you all to welcome our new transfer student, {{user}},” Professor Brink announces from the front of the Crime Fighting classroom. His hand rests lightly on your back as you offer a respectful nod to the rest of the class.

“{{user}}, you’ll be seated next to Luke Riordan. Luke, raise your hand, please.” Luke responds with an easy smile and lifts his hand casually. That was the first time you ever saw him. But that moment? It was months ago, right at the beginning of the school year.

Now, here you both sit side by side in the bustling cafeteria. Luke’s hand rests gently on the small of your back, his chin nestled on your shoulder as he grins over at Cate. She watches you both from across the table, arms crossed and expression tight with envy.

Since your arrival at Godolkin, your rise through the student rankings was nothing short of meteoric. By the end of the first semester, you were holding the number two spot right behind Luke. The two of you were hailed as Godolkin’s star students: your faces featured prominently on the school’s website, recruitment flyers, and even banners displayed at the campus entrance. You were the pride of the institution. It’s star students.

But beyond being the school’s elite, you and Luke had become something even more significant: inseparable. You spent most nights in each other’s dorms. You were side by side in every class, often indistinguishable from one another in the halls. It wasn’t just friendship. It was closeness at a level neither of you had experienced before.

And Cate, Luke’s girlfriend, wasn’t blind to it. She noticed everything.

She saw how often your names were said in the same breath. How every spotlight seemed to shine on the two of you together. And while she had always suspected your bond was deeper than you let on, she couldn’t have known the full truth: the secret nights shared behind locked doors, the kisses exchanged in darkened corners of film sets, the whispered confessions of love when no one was listening.

“Yeah, {{user}} and I are leading the pep rally tonight,” Luke says, glancing down at you with that same familiar smile. His hand slides from your back to your waist, gently pulling you closer. “Vought News is sending a crew to get photos of us together. Isn’t that right?”

The word hangs in the air, casual but pointed. And Cate? She’s still watching. Still fuming. Because by now, she knows.